Currently, 70 percent schools are open and are taking exams or running classes as per their normal calendar despite difficulties in transportation, according to PABSON's Vice Chairperson Rajendra Baniya. But 30 percent schools have been closed after failing to cope with the shortage of petroleum products to run buses due to the Indian blockade on Nepal."We cannot afford to postpone exams for next 15 days and it is unfair to keep students under exam pressure during the vacation," said Baniya.
Breaking the earlier trend of extending festival holidays from Dashain to Chhath, the schools would remain open between Dashain and Tihar to cover the course hampered due to 26 days of unscheduled holidays after the Gorkha Earthquake on April 25. Feedback collection to the draft constitution earlier and series of Nepal bandas and strikes on the eve of promulgation of the constitution around September 20 also halted studies in schools across the country.
Meanwhile, schools in most of the Tarai districts have remained closed due to indefinite protest programs of the Madhesi Morcha even though they joined the parliament on Sunday.
While the Dashain festival begins on Tuesday, there is almost no chance of resuming schools before Fulpati, Baniya added. Informal talks among the government, protesting groups and PABSON are yet to find any way till now, according to him.
"We had expected the agitators to show some morality by opening schools when their parliamentarians took part in the prime minister's election but that was too much to expect," Baniya expressed disappointment over the lack of attention to schools which has badly hit the education of millions of students. Great earthquake had devastating effect on 14 districts in the country, including the capital, bringing schools in the affected areas to closure for many days.
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